


The Only Exception

by MaxTheDumbass



Category: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson
Genre: Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I love them okay, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Trauma, really lowkey agnst tho, this is just really soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25243849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaxTheDumbass/pseuds/MaxTheDumbass
Summary: Mymble and Joxter find comfort in eachother
Relationships: Joxaren | The Joxter/Mymlan | The Mymble
Kudos: 10





	The Only Exception

Joxter had gotten used to being alone. Maybe he wasn’t physically alone—he had friends on the crew of the Oshun Oxtra, but they didn't take him seriously. He was just the lazy mumrik they couldn't get to leave their ship. A nice enough guy, sure, but no one of any true value to the crew. And, honestly, he didn't even care anymore. He had found it easy to be nothing more than comic relief, that annoying criminal you can't get off your ass, that he no longer saw the point in being anything else.

Even in his earliest childhood memories, he had been alone. Tove knew where his parents were. He had always told people they had gone missing while at war with a park keeper, but in all honesty he didn't really know what it was that had happened to them. But mysterious disappearances fighting those he was known for hating was far cooler to say than that his parents probably abandoned him on the side of the road and never looked back. It was a lie but a pretty one.

And so Joxter had learned to fake a smile, if no one took him seriously he wouldn't have to worry about letting anybody down. Can't disappoint people if they already expect nothing of you. Besides, people are less likely to shoot a preteen mumrik eating the leftover food in their garbage if he doesn't appear as a threat.

It wasn't that no one had ever tried to get to know Joxter before, both Hodgkins and Moomin had realized there was more to the Joxter and tried to get through his harsh exterior to no avail. No matter how much he tried to convince himself that they were different, that they could be trusted, he could never shake off the constant state fight or flight he had found himself in.

But Mymble… Mymble was different. 

From the very first moment he saw her, he knew there was something about her that made her unique. Something about the way she rounded up her children, laughing happily to herself made him want to run into her arms before he had even said a word to her.

It was almost jarring. For so long Joxter had wanted to be alone, believing that it was safer to never trust at all than risk being hurt. But he had just one look in her eyes and had wanted to ditch everything and marry her in secret, to run off to start a new life in Rome. And he didn't even know her name. The Joxter, the independent vagabond of the streets, had fallen in love then and there at Daddy Jones party. And oh Tove did he have no idea what to do.

Everything about her was just so magnificent to him. From the way she would untie her long ginger hair from its bun and let it blow free in the wind, to the way she’d mindlessly wiggle her toes when dipping them in the river. In the eyes of the Joxter she was a goddess. And he was her loyalist worshiper.

So when she asked him of all people on a date he had to do his very best to not faint there on the spot.

“P-Pardon me, Miss Mymble,” he stuttered. “Surely you must be mistaken.”

The Mymble frowned when she heard that, an expression Joxter immediately decided did not suit her in the slightest.

“Oh, dear… I’m sorry, Joxter, I should've known better,” she said sadly her voice dropping.

Joxter tilted his head in confusion. “Should have known better than to what?” Surely a girl as beautiful as she wouldn't make mistakes? Especially those on par with those of a tramp like him.

“To expect you to want anything to do with a slut like me! Good Tove! I really need to stop opening my legs up to any man who shows me even the slightest bit of kindness!” she cried, tears forming in her eyes.

Without even thinking, Joxter quickly scooted closer to her to try and comfort her or something, anything to keep her from crying. He couldn't stand to see her cry.

“No! No, no, fuck, please don't cry!” 

She sighed, wiping her tears herself. “I don't need your pity.”

“What? Oh, Tove, no, I wouldn't do that to you! Trust me, I've gotten plenty unwanted pity of my own, I wouldn't wish it upon you.”

Mymble chuckled softly. Good, anything that wasn't crying. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, really! Fuck, Mymble , I just didn't want to see you cry…”

“I suppose that's reasonable, but still… I shouldn't have come onto you so strongly,” she said, leaning back with a sigh.

Joxter laid down next to her. “Honestly, I don't mind the directness. You just caught me off guard, that's all.”

She looked at him curiously. “Oh, really?”

He tried and failed to hide a blush. “Well, uh, you know, you are just… an incredible woman, Mymble,” he told her, his voice dripping with sincerity. “I couldn't believe you’d want anything to do with a guy like me.”

“I'm many things, Joxter, but incredible is not one of them.”

“Well, Miss Mymble, I beg to differ.”

“Beg all you want, it's not going to change the truth. I'm not majestic, beautiful, incredible, or whatever it is you see me as in that head of yours. I'm nothing more than a cheap whore,” she said bluntly.

Joxter looked up to the sky, observing the clouds and thinking to himself for a moment.

“I'm sorry to disappoint you,” Mymble said weakly.

“It wasn't your beauty that attracted me to you.”

“Then that'd be a first.”

“I think, and you'll have to forgive me as I'm not the best thinker, that it was your genuineness.” 

She looked over at him. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you probably don't know this about me—what am I saying, you don't know anything about me—but that's not the point. I have always had trouble trusting others. I guess it's what comes with being an orphan mumrik on the streets fighting to survive. But I feel safe with you, like I have nothing to be afraid of,” he said softly.

“Is that true? Do you really mean it?”

“Of course I mean it! I wouldn't lie to you.”

As soon as Joxter spoke those words, Mymble scooped him up into a hug and began sobbing.

“Oh, Tove, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you upset!” Joxter said, admittedly worried that he had said the wrong thing to the much larger mymble and hurt her feelings and now was going to be crushed by her.

“No, no, you’re fine. I get emotional easily, but it’s just…no one has ever been so kind to me before.”

He chuckled. “Well, I mean, no one’s ever hugged me before.”

Mymble gently ran a paw through the mumrik’s fluffy hair. “Oh my, you poor thing. I'll have to take care of that right away and make sure to give you plenty from here on out.”

“It’s fine, really, you don’t have to.”


End file.
